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The Sterilized Zone: Guide To A Forlorn Realm
The Multiverse, a vast and infinite set of universes, dimensions and planes of existence. The impossible is possible, where anything can and most likely will happen. While it may seem all lovely and amazing to the naive reader, the prospect of such a existence is quite baffling...even terrifying. That being said many of these dimensions are indeed very dangerous. This guide will cover one such region of the Multiverse simply referred now as the Sterilized Zone. The Sterilized Zone as it is called, was as it's name says was sterilized of most living organisms, eons ago by a military power to halt the spread of a deadly breed of parasitic lifeforms. The final blow came in the form of a weapon, their so called solution was the sterilization of infested areas. The aftermath was swift and brutal as half of the entire plane was engulfed in a perfectly still silence and piercing white light. What remained was a barren and grey stretch of space. Everything was gone, laid to utter ruin and dead. Within the context of this book, I shall describe in brief some of the more well-known of the Sterilized Zone's sites. To the distant observer, the Sterilized Zone appears as an expanse of roiling, toxic energies flickering in the void of space. Most sane and logical space travelers know not to look too long at such things, for to do so is to invite death at best and madness at worst. Often and in most cases, vessels navigating through in the vicinity of the Zone and other, similar phenomena raise their shields to the max, so that none may become engulfed by the whirling and corrosive energies. Were a vessel to venture too close upon the Zone, it would be buffeted by ever more violent tides of outpouring energy until navigation became all but impossible. At that point, the vessel would be cast upon the currents of the energy and washed up wherever the capricious and unknowable energies of space willed to be, if it was not destroyed immediately upon exposure to such torrent of volatile energies . The arrangement of the interior of the Sterilized Zone is beyond describing in sane or rational terms and only the most bravest or foolish would attempt to map its depths. Despite this, there are those possessing such knowledge who perceive patterns and forms in the flowing depths and who have come to understand something of the phenomena's movements. Over countless generations of explorers, insane astronomers and space navigators have come to recognize certain features and pronounced names for the various regions within such hostile conditions. All of these features can be broadly categorized as belonging to one of the three known zones within the Sterilized Zone; the Rim Worlds, the Middle, and the Inner Core. The Rim Worlds represent the outer fringe of the Sterilized Zone, a outer shell consisting of several hundred worlds and star systems. Such worlds have effectively become trapped in the lambent sea of polluting energies pouring out from the Wound of the Inner Core. None can say for certainly how many of the Rim Worlds are inhabited, and such is the ebb and flow of the energy and time with the Sterilized Zone that a planet teeming with life on one sighting may show no sign of ever having harbored life in the first place. Most others are avoided at all costs. So unpredictable are the currents of the energy storm that even these outer worlds are isolated from one another. Bostyria Bostyria is one of the few stable and populous worlds to be found in the Sterilized Zone. It takes the form of an extremely large, harsh planet orbiting a bright yellow star. The surface is dominated by several rocky landmasses separated by small seas of sand and dunes. At some point the landmasses were civilized; the marks of ancient roadways span across the land, and the faint traces of eroding constructs and ruined cities still exist in sparse areas. Some disaster befell the inhabitants of Bostyria, perhaps at the moment of being sterilized during the formation of the Sterilized Zone, or more likely later as order broke down and civilization fell. The current inhabitants do not speak of such times and regard the ruins of their ancestors' creations with superstitious fear and awe. Bostyria's population is made up of numerous fierce nomadic tribes, the Bostyr, who travel over the wide and rough plains of the interior. The lifestyle of a Bostyr is one of survival of the fittest and ruthless conquest, a powerful tribe can quickly amass a great amount slaves and large herds of Xardopps, beasts of labor that they use for mounts, food, and transportation. However, a tribe too burdened with such plunder soon has every other tribe attempting to steal any scrap of resources that it cannot protect in an nonstop cycle of bloodshed and warfare. Angaiynus and Caldûn The worlds of Angaynus and Caldûn orbit the dying star on the very fringes of the Rim Worlds. Both worlds were ravaged in the sterilization process and long since reverted to savage barbarism of the worst kind. Two species have risen to complete dominance on the planets; a thousand clans of savage Morks have overrun Angaiynus and countless bands of Dukants have claimed Calûn. Primitive warfare is endemic to both planets and the inhabitants’ resources are normally fully absorbed in fighting others in vicious battles for survival and territory. The Morks of Angaiynus dwell on a planet dominated by vast deserts and relentless sand storms. Water and food are rare commodities on the planet, to the point where even the Mork clans are hampered by the lack of resources. The Morks themselves are rough and tough, their hides burned almost black by the heat of the sun and scoured by the winds. Each tribe guards its own watering hole ferociously and makes constant attempts to seize others so that they can expand their numbers. Many of the clans are notably proficient for their ingenuity, manufacturing all manner of vehicles are used to cross the deserts and exhibit a love of high speed violence that far exceeds all reason. Other clans produce large numbers of wild and dangerous strains of hyper-violent Morks. The limitations imposed by the harsh geography and climate make building any sort of permanent settlement let along a empire impossible. At their worst, the deadly sand storms circling the planet can rage for weeks at a time and reach strengths that strip anything living to the bone in mere minutes. Caldûn is a largely toxic world, submerged in a great briny ocean that support only but the most hardy forms of life. The only land available are several chains of marshy islands scattered across the bitter waters, Dukant warriors stalk the weed choked inlets and waterways, laying ambush for the occasional passing prey such as a member of a rival family. Families weave huts, forming entire villages among the treetops. The Dukants retain the dwindling vestiges of technology, with the most complex being saber rifles and swords. Their enigmatic leaders, strange beings spend their entire lives breeding great and terrible beasts, aethergulpers, sky-eels and dusk moths of great size. They wait and watch the skies for the return of the dark heaven of their ancient tales. On both worlds, a single event takes precedence over the endless cycles of blood and death. When the time comes that their twin-planet looms large in the sky. Then every head turns their thoughts to migrating and the eventually conquest of a new world. The erratic orbits of the two bring them within just a few million miles of one another. From salt marshes of Caldûn, enormous flocks of dusk moths, sky-eels and aethergulpers take flight, migrating across space to the sandpit of Angaiynus. Heavily trained Dukants cling to their backs for the crossing, surviving the passage by burrowing into their flesh and forming man holes. In turn, from Angaiynus, billions of rockets blast skyward towards the murky orb of Asphodel, and huge rocks tear free from the desert sands propelled aloft by the combined force of rockets and blasters that carry hordes of bloodthirsty Mork warriors to battle. The two invading armies meet and do battle, the ferocity of both sides often driving them to do battle in the empty fastness between their worlds. Such battles usually mean death for both sides. World spanning wars and battles erupt across the faces of both worlds when the skies fill with enemies from the other world. Only a handful survive the crossing and the landfalls, with most dying immediately. However, no force of invaders seems to have survived long enough to be found alive in opposite alignment. As the planets wanes in the sky all of the tribes left behind automatically turn against any outsiders to be found on their own world. In a display of universal unity, they prosecute a global genocidal frenzy against the lingering invaders, only returning to the normal business of fighting among their own kind when every invading Dukant or Mork on the planet has been utterly eradicated, and subsequently prepare for the next cycle to continue. Mechron Of all the worlds to be sterilized, the world of Mechron was the least affected and for good reason. The entire planet is mechanized and is in fact barren of all organic life. This was not always though, billions of years ago, Mechron was seeded with a vast array of life, it's native inhabitants were highly advanced for their time. But became victims of their own over-industrialization. Millennia of incessant construction turned the world into a smog-choked landscape. The surface is covered with massive forge complexes, sprawling refineries, towering monuments to the glory of their technological mastery and power. The cumulative wide-spread environmental damage, including depletion of their ozone layer, began to take a disastrous toll. The organic lifeforms suffered from long-term genetic damage from radiation poisoning due to exposure from the sun's rays and pollution from the towering factories that dominated the surface. In the twilight years of this dying world, most of native wildlife on the planet, including all those in their oceans, had long ago become extinct. To save their race, they implanted themselves with symbiotic AI technology to enhance themselves in order to survive as their home-world became inhospitable. The Als ran infinite simulations to come up with the best fix to their creators' plight. Ultimately their combined intelligence came with a sole conclusion. The Als immediately subverted control of the bodies of their masters and altered their genetic material at the deepest level, transforming them into synthetic beings. They proceeded to multiply into a vast number of different forms, many resembling some form of life that once thrived on Mechron. Soon large stretches of fabricated wilderness were constructed to better suit the ever increasing synthetic wildlife and it became the home to an artificial ecology. Synthetic flora sprouts from the metallic soil, its bark and leaves absorbing light in perfect emulation of the process of photosynthesis. It is true that nothing organic grows on the planet. It is therefore necessary that many of the creatures one will encounter on Mechron are predatory. Synthetic beasts, designed to emulate the form and function of their extinct, organic counterparts, are indeed alive and descended from the joining of the Als and their makers, augmented with metallic grafts and lubricant synthesized blood. The accumulation of liquid lubricants that collect within the streams and gullies of the lowlands. This solution is a mixture of machine grease, the excreta and other fluids of fabricated wildlife, and a myriad of innumerable substances churned out by the factories beneath the surface. The lubricants flow and are collected in basins across Mechron, to be drawn into automated treatment plants and pumped back to distribution to the necessary environments. When the sterilization occurred, the synth and Al inhabitants were spared thanks in part to their non organic forms. They simple went on and continued to follow their programming and are one of the rare few civilizations within the Sterilized Zone to survive fully intact. Heta Luminaes Dominated by thick tropical forest growth, it would be hard to believe that just a short time ago this lush world was sterilized of all life, left simply as a dead world of rock in the cold void of space. The corrosive energies from the first impact of sterilization raged through the zone, waves of such energy seeped into the Rim Worlds with the world of Heta Luminaes's pristine environment becoming dissolved into a watery soup of organic matter. It was believed that would be the end of it, but it wasn't. The residual bio-matter stagnated and within a mere decade, somehow the devastated world had bloomed with a rich abundance of flora and fauna, the likes the planet never saw before. The world appears at first to be a stable and welcoming planet that could easily be found in nearly any region of the dimension. This appearance is a deceit, a lure to bring the unwary into the lush, green hell. Beneath the treetop canopy, there is nothing but endless thorny mazes that rarely glimpses any sunlight. These forests are home to a vast variety of fierce predatory life-forms. Some of the more well known predators include the ravenous needlewurm, the cunning shade-spider, and the utterly horrific death snapper. Heta Luminaes’s plant life is even more dangerous; twisted growths of briers and teeth interweaving with arm-thick vines and spear-like, steel-hard thorns dripping with lethal toxic sap. Rugira A tortured, corpse of a world, Rugira stands as a terrible reminder of a dark and ghastly past within the Rim Worlds. Ages ago, it was once a thriving world, rich in resources and lore. Ultimately, it was embroiled in a savage war, the world had unknowingly became infiltrated by a nest of straggling Parasites, when members of the highly advanced-militaristic faction, the dreaded Orlovanaughts who had shown little regard in condemning entire worlds bearing even the tiniest traces of the taint of the Parasites, discovered the presence of their vile enemy on the world. There was little doubt in their next actions as they proceed to bombard the surface. Thus, the world as it was had ravaged, its once great cities and centers of learning smashed to debris, its prosperous civilization reduced to terrible brutality. Ongoing cataclysmic reactions have created seas of baneful chemical-infused fire, and the remaining continents are marred by massive irradiated pits, actively spewing out even more toxic vapors into the air. The majority of Rugira’s environment is completely uninhabitable, with only a few regions spared the ravages of the Orlovanaughts' assault. The planet's population is mostly composed of degenerate mutants and bloodthirsty abominations born from the irradiated soil, surviving on the remains of their past glory or on each other. A small archipelago of asteroids in near orbit have been fitted to sustain life by the last pure remnants of the world's inhabitants, and a large number of these habitats serve as bloody gladiatorial pits where mutants and other survivors from the ground are snatched away and pitted against one another for blood sport to the decadent crowd's sick amusement. Warp stalkers, deformed child-minded brutes, pit-dwelling cannibalistic troglodytes and other such creatures are common among these makeshift arenas to add particular spice up to the contests. Hollow Sisters of Tovk'es Of all the Rim Worlds, the most bizarre of them lie in the Tovk'es System. These worlds are known as the Hollow Sisters, and the name aptly describes their bizarre nature, from afar, the Hollow Sisters resemble half-eaten fruits as if some great behemoth has taken a chuck out of each of them. Once these worlds were all relatively normal planets, but the rivalry between feuding Tech Magi has stripped enormous amounts of the planets' once-abundant resources until they were nearly entirely consumed by the massive-scale deep core mining operations. The planets' molten heart cooled and collapsed in on themselves eons ago, but thanks to being suspended by the reality-bending technology of the Tech Magi, these worlds would have long since broken apart and collapse into millions of asteroids. Kayama The world of Kayama is one shaped by brutal storms, cruel seas, and steep mountains. Most of its native life forms are primitive plants and lichens. The surface fauna largely consists of ocean-dwelling invertebrates. Many of the more sophisticated organisms employ potent toxins that are highly effective. Heavy metal contamination is present in many of the world’s regions, leading to high levels of toxicity among much of its plant life. It is as though the planet actively attempts to defend itself against the intrusion of any invading foreign body. By some unnatural law, no stone or mortar may be set upon another on the world as driving winds blow down any progress, thus the building of any structure is virtually impossible. Any attempt to exploit the world and it's riches is punished with retaliation. Mining operations often fall victim to bizarre accidents, the earth ripping apart to swallow it up, or swarms of foul, mewling and twisted things rising out of their subterranean realms to tear apart those who dig too deep. The Ring Lands Trapped within the terrible energies that mark the convergence of the two regions between the Rim Worlds and the Middle is a vast ring of asteroids, spanning millions of miles along. Each asteroid has its own atmosphere, many are breathable, able to support life while others are deadly. They can vary in size from a planetoid to a island and are linked to the next by an invisible anchor and trail of atmosphere, allowing people to step from one to the next. While some of these lands of rock are mere feet apart, others are many miles away, forcing travelers to cross unseen bridges and pathways through the space, never knowing what might await them on the next island. The largest and most notable of these islands of these Ring Lands, As'ntha is home of the tech magi cities of Ma'gos, Lyadwé and Utheleia.' '''As'ntha is a rich and prosperous world, the pristine lines of its imposing metal cities and shimmering glass towers overlook stretches of open land covered with well-tended agriculture and lush orchards, the sky is filled with the never ending movement of flying star-craft, with shipyards work ceaselessly and a variety of space vessels can be found at port. This activity are the products of the most potent tech-crafted sorcery; everything from eldritch multidimensional-forged engines to spaceships powered by rune-inscribed reactors. Spells and chants are implicit in every kind of technology in an obscure fusion of sorcery and science. The three cities of As'ntha are highly distinct from one another and frequently at war, over a variety of imaginary slights, territorial and resource claims. Full war between the cities has not been visited upon the planet in several centuries for fear of past evils unleashed upon their world. In ancient times, fleets of floating glass towers flocked by squadrons of flying metallic warlocks ravaged the landscape while legions of unleashed automaton battle-thralls fought to destruction in an storm of brutal violence and bloodshed. A great number of areas on the surface still bear the scars of conflict, places where reality is worn thin and the laws of physics itself have been gutted beyond measure. The city of Ma'gos is built on an island at the center of a great lake and claims to be the oldest settlement of As'ntha, a claim refuted by both Lyadwé and Utheleia, and one of the many reasons for such aggressive show between the cities. Ma'gos is ruled over by thirteen high Tech Magi magistrates know simply as the Technocrats that reside within majestic palaces or in the highest towers of the city where they meet in secret by decree of the time, mood and whimsically desires of their fellow Technocrats. The measure of a magi’s worth in Ma'gos is determined by the height of his personal tower, a practice that has caused the city to expand into a cluster of overlapping metallic spikes that rise high into the sky, touching the clouds themselves. The highest-ranked Tech Magi seldom descend from the heights, some living out their entire lives in the clouds and sky far, never feeling the touch of earth beneath their feet. The Tech Magi of Ma'gos often weave enchantments into their garments allowing levitation and even short term flight. The city of Lyadwé lies at the eastern foothills of a large chain of mountains far to the west. Lyadwé is ruled over by a mysterious immortal tyrant who has seemly ruled since time primordial. The towers of Lyadwé are squat, cube like structures of dark shaded green glass often broader than they are tall. Lyadwé’s magi show a great passion for alteration and transmogrification, the tops of many of the towers are made to serve as arcane distilleries and gigantic laboratories. The flux-scientists of Lyadwé strive to master the mysterious art known as alchemy. They concoct foul mutagenic solutions, instilling animus into inanimate objects and bend matter at their will. Over the centuries these practices has warped the surrounding landscape. Jagged crystal mountains seep with festering corruption that cause them to crumble away, and dust fiends born of the powdered gems screech down canyons of smooth rock. Looming over the canyons of fractured crystal and laid out, are numerous complex geometric symbols and figures scribbled on towering crystal obelisks. The city of Utheleia occupies a region of wasteland south of Lyadwé. Seen from afar it appears as a mass of bulbous domes and sleek pyramids tinted a kaleidoscope of colors; whorls of scarlet, violet and auburn shot through with streaks of azure, brass, charcoal, coral and so many more. The very sight of gleaming beneath the harsh sun can conjure illusions on the unwary eye. At sunset, the innumerable shades of the city bleed together to make colors unseen ever before. The Magi of Utheleia wear a variety of exquisite and exotic dyed clothing whenever in public. Bland color design schemes are frowned upon. Part of the Utheleia Magi’ reverence for color extends from their obsessive love of colorful objects. By night, the vast streets of Utheleia are stained with a temporary rainbow of colored ink. One such tradition among the citizens is the ritualistic dying of the deceased's skin and being stuffed for public display. Onlookers who first glimpse one of these displays often find the sight of it, extermly painful. Other notable islands include the Flesh Forest of Ind, the Xeng Plateau, the Eco-Dome of Bodta, the Pale City and the Ether Geysers. The Flesh Forest of Ind is as the name suggests is a dark forest composed of strange flesh-like material, the entire asteroid is covered by the forest and is inhabited by various nightmarish creatures and beasts. The Xeng Plateau is a most mysterious place. An arid, cold and eerie plateau dotting this bleak landscape are lone huts of granite and stone villages whose tiny windows glowed with the faint flicker of light. Strange men like creatures inhabit the land and seem to take part in bloody rituals where they feast on the flesh of living victims. A many number of those who travel here end up as the unwilling quests at such feasts, only to become the main course. Another mystery of the Ring Lands, is the Eco-Dome of Bodta. A dome seemly composed entirely of glass, designed in a lattice fashion. Within the dome, it is a greenhouse full of lush greenery and vegetation. The origins of these place are a mystery, various theories and stories have sprung up around it. Perhaps a rouge Tech Magi conducting some dark biological experiments, maybe a abandoned terriforming project, no one really knows. The eco-dome supports a diversity of life, all of these animals and plants are deadly in their own right and have evolved potent biological attack and defense mechanisms against other lifeforms. Every known plant species is toxic in some nature, making foraging for food near impossible. Some plants secrete pollen into the air which is poisonous and destroys nerve tissue. Others secrete sticky liquid to capture passing animals and slowly dissolve them, into a nutritious broth. Some plants poison the ground and turn the immediate area around them into boggy traps to ensnare invaders. The native animals are just as deadly as the plant life is. One of the most infamous deadly animals of Bodta's Eco-Dome is the Kruax, a voracious insectoid predator, looking somewhat like a spider mixed together with a reptile. A agile and cunning predator stalking prey from above the canopy before jumping on and either crushing or tearing the unfortunate creature into utter submission. Other wildlife include the Carlusian Scarlet Striker, a serpent whose's venom is so powerful it can kill in under 12 minutes. The Razor-hawk, large avian creature the size of a hawk or eagle and is known to be a particularly effective and vicious aerial predator. The great quadrupeds called Zardops, a distant relative of the Xardopps. The animals are prized for their highly nutritious and tasty meat, and have been introduced to many worlds throughout the multiverse, along side their Xardopp cousins. The Zardops however are the complete opposite of the gentle Xardoops, and are extremely ornery and virtually impossible to keep under control, so much that they have become one of the many predators found within the Eco-Dome. Situated on a small island is the Pale City, a city of white towers and silvery keeps. A great field of wildflowers sprouts around the city. Blooming with leaves of silver, white and grey. Fragile and beautiful, the flower is a enchanting sight to behold. Across the many balconies throughout the city, especially on the tallest spires, great hanging gardens of white and silver blooms hang against the marble stone walls. The people of the Pale City appear to be handsomely-featured humans, neither young nor old, and with children and the infirm never to be seen. They treat all outsiders with disdain and, for the most part, view them as errant children to be taken over the knee. The Ether Geysers are a eerie yet memorizing sight, the surface has been bored through with countless sinkholes and chimneys. The chimneys vent out ether, which as a result makes up the bulk of the atmosphere. The Etheramoebas, mysterious, elegant, ethereal, and even hauntingly beautiful, jellyfish like creatures gracefully float in the air as they soak up and feed off the raw ether for nutrients. Beyond the outer shell of the Rim Worlds is to be found the zone referred to as the Middle. This region is a wildly fluctuating ravaged real-space, the star systems within it existing in a damned slow decay where neither the laws of the material realm nor the of the corrosive energy of the Wound fully hold sway. There are seven major inhabited worlds within the Middle and numerous other planets; all are so beset by the raging energy storm they are beyond the reach of anyone grasp. These worlds all exist in a wild flux. At times they become so infused with the raw power of the Wound that reality scuffles and dissipates, space and time stop or are erased completely. At other times, the Wound's energies appears to recede or recoil from them, and the inhabitants experience a somewhat painfully brief period of relative calm and relief. However, the tides of the energies of the Wound always return, and so the worlds of the Middle exist in a kind of purgatory, standing on the very edge of the precipice of the slow decay of space and time itself. Some say that the worlds of the Middle and beyond were said to house some lost ancient secrets or lost lore, twisted beyond all recognition at the moment of the birth of the Wound and creation of the Sterilized Zone. '''Taros Ver' The outer-most of the Middle’s major planets, Taros Ver. Once a cool and clammy planet of swamps and endless miles of sucking muddy bogs. Dense forests of mobile trees known as the Animwoods, actually creatures that were a type of animal-plant hybrid that wander the swamps, sucking up the scum in large migratory herds. That was until the Sterilization, the violent and sudden birth of the Wound, let lose a maelstrom of energy, this energy storm engulfed the planet, Taros Ver was lost in storm for a standard millennia, when the storm finally subsided the damage had already been done. The planet had been transformed into a hellish toxic landscape. Towering remains of rooted Animwoods still stand silently above the acidic pools of the now poisoned swampland. Nothing living remains of this dead world. Charnum The world of Charnum, second major world of the Middle, is a rubble-strewn barren wasteland, its surface blasted by a war that has raged since the beginning of the Sterilized Zone. Charnum is lacking of natural resources and its populace is divided into two opposing factions, each battling over what riches the other has managed to amass over the years. The war is fought with every possible means, from crude knives made of the debris to technologies traded from other worlds within the Zone. The peoples of Charnum are among the most warlike and aggressive to be found the Middle. Men and women go to war in the vestments of some debased clergy and adorned with the old symbols of the Orlovanaughts. Their leaders were at one time, generals and officers, their glittering cloth of golden and silver robes ragged and bloodstained. The inhabitants believe themselves too be the true servants of the Golden-Eyed God. They offer praises and worship to Him on Divine Ore'lovva even as they slay one another and rob the bodies of anything that can be carried away. The cities of Charnum are cobbled together from loot taken from the enemy. Crude temples teetering on collapse and leaning strongholds full of untold riches. Delta Qwada An inhospitable world, the planet's atmosphere is dense with organic gases, clouds of ash, and high levels of radiation. The hostile environment may be the aftermath of an ancient civilization's demise or simply a consequence of its active volcanic activity. The current environment is far too hostile for any intrusion, despite this there is life here, a society of intelligent silicon based lifeforms had evolved, tunneling through rock to feed and every few millennia, entering a cycle of temporary phases of extinction, where all but two of their kind would die off, who then watched the eggs, and parenting and protected them, until they hatched thus resurrecting their race. Historians believe these cycles of near extinction and followed by the eventually mass birth, are the result of some ancient trauma inflicted on Delta Qwada's silicons that's culture has slowly intertwined with the dark chapter of their kind's past. Faelos The forsaken world of Faelos, a great single landmass of vast fertile tundras, temperate plains, wind-swept moors, steep mountains covered in needle-tree forests and vivid blue glaciers. A verdant place despite being in the Middle and a populated one too. The native population were primarily a nomadic hunting-based culture, though there were a subculture of permanent settlers that was undergoing a transformation into a agrarian society. The population eventually fell prey to the dark advances of the Leeches, a devious and foul subspecies of Parasite that used living hosts for the vile propagation of their kind. Thousands were taken to massive hatcheries where they were to gestate the next generation of Leeches. But when all seemed lost, the members of the legendary Knight-Watchers sprung to action, they freed captives, cut down the wave after wave of Leeches, squashed their young under their boots and set ablaze their dreaded hatcheries. When the Leeches' foul leader, the Leech-Lord finally showed himself. A towering, pale creature in human like shape, his eyes glowed a pale grey glow and the palms of his hands each bore a maw full of needle like fangs. The Leech-Lord gave a cold stare at the intruders, and they fell to their knees and their lives were drained, expect for a pair of warriors, strapped in leather. The bigger one was adorned with innumerable knives of all shapes and lengths, the other was rather small, holding a pistol with a sleek barrel. The three fought viciously, the Leech-Lord strike with bolts of a particular strange energy and quick jabs, all the while looking for the moment to land a well placed bite. The other two countered with quick reflexes, one blocking and dodging, while the other attacked from the rear. The two managed to wear down their opponent and defeat him. The people of Faelos soon rose up and drove the remaining Leeches from their planet and gave many praises to their liberators. That was then and this is now. Its proximity to the Wound, however, has had a substantial and unforeseen effect. The natives have completely forsaken their saviors' values of liberty and freedom. The planet's vast resources are managed by slaves descended from those captured on raids from nearby worlds. A ruling class of depraved nobility holds the population in cruel bondage. Mercenary forces provide the planet's defenses and security, in exchange for a tithe of the planet's harvests and the occasional slave. Bab'lon Prime and Javin The worlds of Bab'lon Prime and Javin, both are teetering on the brink of decline. Both suffer constantly from the constant flow of the Wound's energies. Over time, it has drastically altered the worlds' environments, both experienced massive die offs of native plant and animal species unable to adapt to the increasingly changing in their respective environments. Most of Bab'lon Prime is covered in a vast parched, bronzed landscape of sand with scare amounts of fresh water. The north and south poles are the complete opposite, having permanent sources of water and are strewn with lush greenery. This was not always the case, as before the planet was full of life and had a diversity of habitat, home to entire ecosystem of flora and fauna. But after the Wound's creation, the steady flow of chaotic energies had a negative effect on certain native species, a small annelid like invertebrate that lived in the dunes of the deserts, touched by the corrosive and chaotic energies of the Wound, this relatively benign creature grew into monstrous proportions and so did their appetites. The now colossal worms spread and thrived as they began to turn lush fertile lands into endless expanse of barren deserts. Wildlife that could not adapt to the environmental changes, starved and faded away into extinction. The polar caps melted away flooding the planet's poles, this would eventually create the last green-spots which provides homes for the remnants of the world's former ecology. The small planet of Javin, home of a lost fragment of men from a long lost world. Their oral folklore speaks of how ages long since past, their ancestors were made slaves by evil gods from the void, who forced them to steal their world's riches and when they began to deplete the resources, many of the evil ones took their leave along with a large number of slaves aboard their sky palaces to find new worlds to conquer. On one such sky palace, the slaves rebelled and rose up against the cruel gods and their treacherous minions, causing the sky palace to fall and plummet, crashing. The surviving slaves emerged to find themselves on a new world, free of the greedy gods and so they formed a new life for themselves. In the long years of separation from the First World during the Time of Freedom, the inhabitants of Javin physically altered from the baseline stock of their relatives, believed to be the degenerative effects of the Wound's energies. They became taller and more sinuous than their ancestors, and their features more grotesque. Despite these minor mutations, the Javinites retained their intelligence, though they regressed to pre-industrial, tribal people, separated into several tribes scattered across the planet. Javin possessed notably high mountain ranges, riven with deep valleys, that descended into wide savannas and grasslands that in turned into deserts. Great herds of horned beasts migrated across its plains, hunted by packs of razor-fanged predators, great hooded serpents were common in the deserts. The uplands held a kind of hard clay that supports scrub vegetation and tall trees, while the river valleys are more fertile and contain the settlements that hold most of the primitive inhabitants of the world. The indigenous Javinites include a fierce warrior caste that regularly warred with one another. This warrior caste were organised into different warrior-lodges that each venerated the animistic spirit of a particular form of local predators. During the extermination of the Parasites, the last of the Unicorns, extermly rare breed of Parasite nicknamed for the cranial horn that sprouted from their center of their skulls, came to hide from the hunting parties of both the Knight-Watchers and the Orlovanaughts on Javin. There it was tracked down and eventually destroyed by Orlovanaught trackers along with a entire Javinite tribe who had been contaminated by it's influence. Hauclite Hauclite is a world of bleak skies and even bleaker lands, it experienced neither day nor night, only a perpetual grey twilight. Settled long ago as a mining colony, the cities, outposts, mining centers and towns of Hauclite had long since fallen into decay and subsequently were abandoned. In there place, the Parasites set upon the world, various broods of theirs came to coexist together. Gaunt, long necked albinos strolling with unnatural grace, symbiotic cherubs intertwined and bonded with potential hosts, monsters in fair form with gelatinous hands that strangle the very life out of prey, moody maidens cry out rivers of tears in underground realms, malformed creatures that walked on finger like legs, massive stationary behemoths submerged in soil, towering creatures with over-sized melon heads, beings that inspire a false sense of loyalty in others and all other manner of horrific life to imagine. Scouts from the Orlovanaughts discovered the world and the lord commanders attacked immediately, the casualties on both sides were horrendous, the entire planet was laid to waste as the Orlovanaught forces incinerated everything that lived. What was left was a charred barren rock. Forsaken Abode Upon a crust of earth torn from the surface of some extinct world lies an imposing husk of a great tree, contorted and twisted into a unnatural form, woven in it's bare branches is a wooden mansion, an great structure of rotted timbers and sagging beams. A vast abandoned structure, one where a person could easily become lost. Rotten floorboards collapse, sending many to doom of slow consumption by the swarms of ravenous carrion feeders that dwell in the lower levels. Staircases decorated with moth-eaten carpets and hallways that echo with the murmurs of pass guests and artwork showing sights of decay. One legend states that the leader of the Knight-Watchers survived a whole week within the decrepit mansion, though most dismiss such a story as myth then fact. Research Outpost Alpha-AZ2386 Established to study the Sterilized Zone nearly 10,000 years ago. Due to the reported fluctuation of the Wound, this station was initially created to be mobile, that it might remain ever on the periphery of the Warp Storm. Without warning, the Wound expanded to nearly half again its size, sucking the station into the Zone and cutting it off from the command. At the time, the outpost was maned by a team of researchers and military personal, and while the Orlovanaughts loathed to lose a valuable monitoring tool, they and their allies considered the station gone and classified it as destroyed and it's crew as lost. One can imagine the shock and confusion of all when it suddenly reappeared. The outpost's reappearance has provoked great debate among the Brain Tank and the Followers of the Hidden View. The structure's new location is many light years from where it originally vanished, creating additional speculation on the nature of such a anomaly. Many wish to investigate the outpost to see what details the sensors have recorded during its time within the Zone and the fate of the personal. While the matter is being debated, an system of quarantine beacons has been put in place warning all star-ships to keep a wide berth from the area, less learn the error of the ways through the full force of the Orlovanaughts. At the heart of the Sterilized Zone is to be found a region that defies all logic and reason. Those steeped in lore refer to it as a zone of icy calmness, an eye about which the relentless energies of the Wound ceaselessly rotate and spin around. They claim that there are numerous worlds located within, worlds entirely consumed by the devouring energies of the Wound. The so-called Inner Core is a zone where the raw stuff of reality is utterly saturated by it's warping energies. Mortairus The first of the worlds within the inner Core is known as Mortairus, and orbiting a dim yellow star and perpetually shrouded in a thick, miasma atmosphere of toxic chemical fog. The domain of eldritch overlords who ruled over an entrapped and preyed-upon population as terrible gods and demons. The only atmosphere breathable existed only in the lowest elevations, on flat moors and in the valley basins of the jagged, stony mountains which snaked across the world. These overlords were immune to the toxic air of the planet's upper atmosphere, building great keeps of grey stone on mountainous crags. When settlers first settled Mortairus, the horrific environmental conditions from which they had to eke out survival quickly reduced them to a feudal state and became easy prey for the dark appetites and terrible powers of the overlords. When the Orlovanaughts learned of the existence of the higher beings' incomprehensible mental powers, their ability to survive where men could not, and above all their hunger to prey upon and experiment with victims, they were linked to the Parasites. So plans were made and contact was forged with the natives, to compensate for the risk, Lexur Molfyl's unhinged mind bore fruit as he came up with a solution. Masked with crude filtering hoses and breathing apparatus, the citizens now empowered by and led by the Orlovanaughts waged a ruthless crusade. The overlords banded together and sent armies of stitched-together dead one day, then psy-thralls the next, this meant little as one by one the lords and their domains fell. Their allied forces ventured even higher into the overlords' domain. Encountering ever more virulent pestilence, the constant exposure to the higher doses of toxins toughened them and finally only one of the grim citadels stood. The confrontation with the last lord, when it finally came, it was brief. The soldiers, choking in air so toxic that the hoses of their protective breathing gear and armor began to be eaten away, struggled to the very gates of the overlord's citadel, The last thing they saw as they fell to his knees, gasping for their breath, the world turning black, was the High Lord coming for them. Then a mighty stranger with golden eyes stepped between them, defying the fog, and felled the overlord with a single blow of his gleaming sword. With the downfall of the world's dark and monstrous feudal lords, the people of Mortairus swore service to the cause of the Orlovanaughts and their mysterious savior. When the sterilization began, a large number of population was evacuated. The world is now completely engulfed with poison and corrosive energies, that as left the entire planet now barren and lifeless. Frozen Vale Bleak and soul chilling temperatures, an endless expanses of snow, vast glacier fields and frozen wastelands. The world's history entirely unknown, though numerous myths and mention of its nature. Some say it is a realm populated by the walking dead of the most vile of creatures, terrible beings whose wretched souls have been forever damned by their own foul deeds and now doomed to wander the freezing lands for an eternity. Others even have claimed the Frozen Vale is the resting place of ancient gods and great heroes, consecrated ground upon which none but the worthiest may tread. In truth, all of these things and none of them may be true; and besides, mortal minds could never comprehend the truth and stay truly sane, as the Frozen Vale does not give up it's secrets easily. Door of Time Throughout the Sterilized Zone lie small openings, rip-tides, and eddies through which countless have attempted to journey and subsequently been lost forever. A few of these are genuinely linked to other places and, in the case of the Door of Time, other times. The Door of Time is located on a obscure moon, one that orbits the worlds of the Inner Core, randomly spinning from one world to another at a moment. It is a unremarkable moon, with a harsh atmosphere and scrub-land landscape. However, what makes it fascinating and unusual is that this world seems to exist in multiple locations at once. The Door itself is a monolithic structure of polished stone and gleaming crystal, a gateway with a single, huge door in the center, built by the hands of long dead artisans and stonemasons. Those wandering the surface of this world may randomly find themselves walking on the surface of the Door deep within the Sterilized Zone, across the multiverse in the Straits of Centrifi in mere seconds. Those within or near the Zone say the Door of Time has existed within the Zone for as long as they know and to walk across their moon’s surface may pitch them into the farthest reaches of the Multiverse. Some travelers also claim that they have walked across the surface of the world and ended up in other parts of the galaxy, or even in other realities and dimensions entirely. Nobody knows just how many times and places the Door of Time are truly linked to. It is said that the worlds and lands contaminated up by the Wound's energies exist in a time frame all their own and cause and effect follow no law there, in fact it out right breaks them. Some might find themselves visiting the ancient city of the old Houlad City before its fall. Others find themselves flung far into the future, into or beyond the final battle said to await that will decide the fate of the multiverse itself. Vault of the Mad Sentinel Far within the Inner Core exists, a chunk of stone the size of a large asteroid. On the barren surface is the remains of a ancient fortress. A grim and eerie place, full of echoes from the past and cold stone. Beneath the desolated ruins, many dark secrets lay hidden from sight, and the deeper into the labyrinth of dungeons one goes, the closer one comes to the truth of the Orlovanaughts, one even they themselves do not yet comprehend. A dark and terrible secret lies, past locked gates that are shielded by dozens of feet of encrusted plating, is an cell. Its walls are inscribed with dire warning, and are secured to keep creatures out, but also to keep something within. There, sustained in life for innumerable amount of years by a powerful stasis field, languishes the broken creature who is known as the Mad Sentinel. The Mad Sentinel, once a member of the Orlovanaughts, he led a great many assaults on various Parasite held worlds but was soon corrupted by their twisted machinations. At that moment, a spark of jealously and pride ignited within and in pursuit of his mad ambition to overthrow 72, take possession of the Warship Orlova, utilize it's technological superiority to establish himself as the head of a vast empire. Ultimately he lost his bid for power and was imprisoned by the very man who he tried to betray, the defeated traitor was left to rot in a vault as penance for his sins. Davues A world dominated by a mountainous range that spans the entire globe, the snow-covered peaks rise up slowly from the fertile plains and stretch to the west before being overshadowed by gargantuan mountains. To climb these mountains is to leave the treeline and enter a realm of ice and snow, a craggy land of stony outcrops and sheer cliff drop offs. Immense slabs of wind eroded rock jut upwards to jagged heights, reaching far above into the clouds. At such heights the winds howl, swirling in all directions and bringing abrupt weather changes; the deep blue skies of high altitude can, in an instant, be replaced by snow squalls, freezing blizzards and ice storms that chill to the very bone. The harsh landscape of Davues deters most attempts of colonization, save for the Parasites. The world soon became home to several major groups of their kind, each were different and even more disturbing then the last. These broods each claimed a region of the world as theirs. The open country is that of great sweeping steppes, fertile grassland that spread endlessly across the horizon, and there plentiful grazing herds of great dire elk and lumbering Yakbeasts that roamed that land. There short nimble creatures with stooped, animal-like posture and skin that shimmered like smoothed rock lived in tribes, these tribes were a breed of Parasite that had adapted a nomadic lifestyle, better suited to the open plains. Rising high from the heart of the grasslands stood a series of complex stone cairns that became know as the Spiral Cairns of the Dancers for they were built by a sect of Parasites for purpose of mysterious dancing rituals that were said to lull and induct those of weaker will into deep trances. South through the great canyons that cut through the mountains turning into a great rift valley, lush growth had long since overcome the cracked rocks and broken stone that had tumbled down from the mountainsides, and game, were abundant as was fresh water, here resided strange beings, yet another breed of Parasite. These Parasites were a long lived race, well adapted to their environment, when the days became cold, they developed the ability to sleep away the harshest of conditions, and they stored up food as well. They build their enclosures in the foothills, and use the growing vegetation not just for food. They gather their food from where it grows, but also plant it in places that will be more convenient for them to collect it from later. They build walls and roofs of stone to protect themselves. When they awaken, they descend down from their hilltop homes into the fertile valley taking time to feed themselves, plant and grow new crops and make repairs to their enclosures if necessary, then return to their lengthy sleep only to wake again to continue the cycle. There on the mountaintops of the tallest peaks lived the mightiest Parasites of Davues, gigantic and towering creatures hewed and crafted the mountains into megalithic citadels that rose high into the blue sky, despite their size, these giants were surprisingly fragile with their skin being quite brittle, though their mental prowess were unchallenged. In times of urgency, these Parasites would unleash the full potential of their mental abilities. For despite the inhospitable weather, the mountains teem with life. Herds of great woolly mega-fauna are plentiful, crisscrossing the treacherous mountain slopes seeking food. These are primeval creatures that have existed unchanged since the world was still young and covered in ice. Due to their harsh environment, the beasts are hardy, but the weather and steep heights are not the only danger, a host of large and especially fierce predators stalk these mountainsides. To survive against the carnivores, the lowest of beast have developed tremendous size, great strength or some other defensive trait to combat these deadly hunters. Using their very minds to commander and sap the very will of these magnificent creatures into defending their citadels, this made the region around their homes into killing grounds for wound be trespassers. Descending down from the mountains on the other side are great chasms carved from streams. This sprawling labyrinth of winding ravines, overhanging stone arches, and gorges twist into serpentine like fashion, forming into a network of river valleys choked by water-logged dark forests and twisted swampland. There among the swamps and marshland, dwell most peculiar beings, another foul strain of Parasite. Strange things that walk on slit like appendages while dangling long, sticky filament down into the murky waters, which then reels in any morsel they drawn in, placing their catch in large bulbous water sacs on their back for later consumption. Outerworld Of all the worlds within the depths of the Lower Core, Outerworld is the one of more notoriety. The shattered floating remnants of a destroyed world, the after shocks of the birth of the Wounds tore the planet apart, launching torn fragments of the former world towards the void, and the barely-habitable remnants were renamed Outerworld. Most life has been wiped out and those that have survived have become either sickly or have undergone drastic transformations. The damage to the world had sundered laws of reality, gravity, space, and even time may not even function properly on the shattered world. Outerworld currently consists of ten large regions that connect to each other but differ sharply in environment. Despite this all were equally dangerous in their own right in some shape or form. The Hellscorched Expanse, as its name implies, it is a grim place. In regards to topography, well, there isn't much. Aesthetically, the ground here is that of a reddish hue, barren, almost uninhabitable and hard-packed. Once a lush and verdant land, the Hellscorched Expanse is now a dry, parched barren wasteland rendered lifeless by the explosive birth of the Wound. Those Morks who did not follow their brethren or were left, can be found struggling to survive the harsh badlands, struggling to scrape by on what ever they can salvage and occasional clashing among differing warbands. Situated on the side of the desolated cliff is a enormous face of being, carved into the rock. The Morks hold a superstitious belief that the face is actually alive and if you venture to close, you can hear it whisper. Taarenald Forest once known as Talnald and also the Forest of Veskar, once an swampy forest, framed in crooked trees of red and orange leaved trees that bathed the entire area in a perpetual autumn hue. These beautiful trees, and the Ekuei's impressive gardens surrounded their greatest city on the former world that Outerworld was once; Shaldar City. A splendorous monument to the skills of their people's artificers, even in the world's waning days, the city's greatness was matched by that of the holy mausoleum of Avasudamz; the place where all Ekuei souls prepared for their journey into the afterlife and where many of their bodies were laid to rest. The smaller city of Luswyld, was just as noteworthy as its more magnificent and famous neighbors as it sat at a crossroads in the area and one seeking to travel from Shaldar to would have pass through the city. At the same time, the wild region deep within the forest was inhabited by the Veskeen Exiles and it was under their control. When the Wound's energies were unleashed, it stirred the Morkish Horde who rampaged across the land, Talnald was rendered one of the Ekuei's final stronghold. The horde of Morks were repelled from Shaldar for a time, but when the destructive energies of Wound corrupted the region, turning the red and orange trees a pale, dusky green that transformed the forest into a dark, eerie woodland. The razing of Shaldar ultimately left the city in ruins and the Ekuei scattered, and presumed extinct by the blood-crazed Morks. Once the majority of the Morcish Horde departed to new worlds, all of Talnald came under the dominion of the Ves Exiles and it was all renamed Taaren in honor of their lost king. Avasudamz, the former Ekuei holy site where the dead were laid to rest, still stands now. After the fall of Shaldar, many surviving Ekuei fled to the mausoleum in hopes of securing it, however by the time they arrived it had already become occupied by new residents besides the dead. A band of renegade Veskeen Exiles prepare for their master's return, a pack of starving scavengers from the House of Chattering Corpses have infested the lower crypts drawn by the stench and bile of the interned dead and a brutal Mork overlord and a remnant of the initial war-band that rampaged through Talnald have penetrated the interior. Next, is the Dead Sea, a expanse of dead water...and as it's name implies everything is dead. Nothing lives within the black depths of the Dead Sea. These waters have been poisoned and sterilized of life. Despite being barren of life, the Dead Sea is often visited by competing crews of mercenaries and pirates who are after the riches found below the water's surface. Lying on the seafloor, is a vast carpet of bones and remains of the beings who once resided in the Dead Sea. The preserved remains contained a precious mineral that crystallized in their bodies and the the possible scientific resources the corpses could provide were well worth the dangers for the possibility of a lifetime of riches. Rumors speak of a mysterious creature that silently guards the sea and it's riches, No one knows what extaclly it is but it is quick and fast as lighting for at a mere glace it disappears under the sea. Though this is just mere salty wife-tale made to spook the guile and the foolish. Adjacent to the Dead Sea, slowly rising out of it's southeastern coast is Eokorood Swamp, the smallest and most tranquil region that has largely evaded the terrible influence of the Wound. The swamp's innumerable lakes and pools are clean of any taint, and most native animals and fungi give off soothing phosphorescent light. The history of the swamp is a complex, often steeped in myth and legend. The logical explanation is that the swamp is a relict of the world's past, the last reminder of ocean's ecology before the sundering. The natives of the swamp have their own tale, the Ekuei's mythos tell of how a spore from the gardens of their Pale Maiden drifted across the salt water and bloomed into Eokorood Swamp. Even the Morks have their own obscene version where two brothers while arguing over which would get the best cut of their meal, that spiraled into a heated conflict as the two literally tore each other apart, so much viscera and excrement was spilled that it flooded the land, forming the swamp. Nandar is the last unscarred region in Outerworld. It is the ancestral home of many races and the heart of early civilization. Today it is a fertile retreat where little has changed since the sundering. The land was extremely sacred to the Ish, being the meeting grounds of their people, where celebrations were held yearly. The tribes would assemble and give thanks to the spirits and their ancestors. The Ish shared the region with a small group of Ekuei refugees, and the mortal enemy of the Ish; the high trollorns of the Rukion Empire. In fact, the empire ruled out of the city of Homhard in the west of the region and maintained a tight grip on the area and often raid Ish territory for slaves. The Dagger Point Mountains, are a mountainous region of Outerworld north of Eokorood Swamp and west of Stormhelm. Full of barren plateaus, deep valleys, and sparse forested tablelands, all sharply contrasting and separated by countless crags dense with menacing knife like spikes. The harsh winds that rip through the serpentine canyons of Dagger Point have, over time, worn the bordering escarpments into menacing, dagger-like spikes that give the region its name. This harsh realm is the the homeland of the brutish trollorns, who wage constant, fierce battles against one another to gain the favor of their merciless Joronn overlords and appease their cruel amusement. Tucked away on one of the many plateaus, lies one of the last fertile green oasis in Dagger Point Mountains. A forested glade that serves as sanctuary for the Lost Tribe, a collection of strange beings and creatures united together that survived the sundering after their tribes and people were wiped out. One of the most infamous places of the Dagger Point Mountains is the otherworldly tower, House of Chattering Corpses, home to the children of the Great Parasite. Its hundred-one layers echo with the gnashing of ghastly teeth like a cicada chorus. Traditionally, their insatiable hunger is held in check by the occasional offerings by their loving kin, though current events have forced them to go unsatisfied. Now they wander and lurk in the shadows, gorging themselves on what ever filth come crossing by. Deeply ashamed of their condition, these pitiable creatures are easily provoked to violence if disturbed. Next, is Stormreach a region of northeastern Outerworld consisting of multiple large land fragments and shards of rock floating in the air. It was previously known as Bondama or the Fields of Bondama, an island of beautiful meadows and a verdant open range, until it was broken during the sundering of the planet. It is now locked in a constant energy storm bleeding from the Wound, further deteriorating the region. Great lightning arcs within a thick haze of violet clouds and bands of pure destructive energy wrap their way across the sky. Shadowlight is found in southeastern Outerworld, east of Taarenald Forest. It is one of the darkest, bleakest and most affected regions on Outerworld. The sky is almost always black and ghastly yellow. Shadowlight was once know as the Goldrest, lush moorland, idyllic forests and fertile plains bathed in the heavenly golden light of the sun. Numerous Ish clans called the region home including those who constructed the sacred mountain temple of Isafell. Goldrest was not only a peaceful light filled paradise for it had a dark side for deep in the mountains held a hidden valley. The Valley of Bloody Tears was once home to a deviant Ish tribe entirely composed of rogue mystics known as the Blackrune Clan. Discovering this place of evil, the warriors of neighboring tribes descended in strength and exterminated the clan to the last, gathering up and burning the bodies to leave no trace that their evil had ever existed. The valley was an ominous place even before the sundering, a deep rift in the mountains of where the light of the sun only reached for a sole solar hour each day. The far end of the valley was marked by massive peaks of blackened stone and the surrounding hills scattered with the bones of the clan's enemies. The clan itself had sheltered in huts made of black rock and flayed hides of beast and enemy alike. The valley earned its name from the ritual sacrifices made by the Blackrune Clan. Sacrificial victims would be chained to the rocks above the settlement and ritually butchered as offerings to dark spirits. It is said soon after Outerworld came to be, the spirits of the dead Blackrune Clan have returned and now revel in the dark fate of their former world. Far off into the west, across the Dead Sea. The former lands of the Amshi, an ancient and now-extinct Ekuei civilization that attained a height of power during the bygone Age of Ordering before mysteriously and abruptly vanishing. Now much of it lies in ruins, a home for those Ekuei who have degenerated into the primitive Fornuli, under the shadow of their ancestors' works and hidden enclaves of the Great Parasite's begotten spawn. The Ghost Glades, reportedly it was the pristine gardens of the Pale Maiden of ancient Ekuei folklore, where she would cultivate and manipulate life itself. It is here according to lore, she found her future mate, the Wild Huntsman and together they would give birth to the Ekuei race. The wooded hills now seep with death. The sky over the glades is eternally gloomy and tinted a blighted green, and the trees and other flora desperately cling to their last shreds of life. Although tainted and eerie, the Ghost Glades still very much has its own unique, haunting beauty. Past the Ghost Glades, the thicket gives way to the Plains of Veske, vast and fertile grassland stretching many hundreds of miles. The plains are named after their primary inhabitants, the Veskeen, a bipedal, keenly intelligent avian race that claimed all of the plains as theirs. The Veskeen were not always a unified people, instead they were once disparate tribes, warring with each other. But a threat would soon emerge, in the form of a great serpent. The serpent coveted the warmth of the sun that the Veskeen had. In time, the serpent began to prey on those who trended away from their villages, but soon took to devouring entire tribes, growing to colossal proportions. Fear and panic gripped the remaining tribes, and in the moment of utter despair, there arose a lone prophet who declared himself a messenger from the sun. The prophet spoke of how the sun spoke to him and told of how it had smiled upon the creatures below, but it was the serpent who dared to defy it and wished to take the sun's light for it's own, so it may devour all life. Now knowing their race's survival depended on it, the leaders mobilized their armies and launched an attack on their enemy, much to the prophet's disappointment. Despite blades and claws, the Veskeen could not break the serpent. Nearly half of their army had perished, shocking the leaders. The prophet proposed a solution: a weapon called the Eye of Light that would channel the sun's very energies into a incredibly destructive power. The prophet directed them south, past the great expanse of seemingly endless grassland, stood many tall rock spires rising high into the sky above a great forest of crooked trees. The prophet instructed them in the weapon's design and the Veskeen took to highest reaches of spires. They harvested timber from the surrounding woods and metals from the nearby mountains, and built the weapon that would be their salvation. When the serpent descended down into the south, the Eye of Light was completed. A violent tremor shook the spires as solar energies roared through it and a white-hot beam exploded from the mechanism to lance through the serpent's chest, blowing it apart in a cloud of charred bone and ash. With the serpent's death, the victorious Veskeen instead of returning to the old ways of tribal competition, stayed unified becoming a single people, building illustrious gilded structures around their new home. A new golden age for mortal civilization dawned on the world and with his work done, the prophet faded away from the crowd. The Plains of Veske was one of the first locations to show the signs of deterioration from released energies from the Wound including desiccation by long droughts, fertile soil turned to dust and sand that would not hold grasses or crops or became sour. The unity of the Veskeen people has fractured with a second group of Veskeen, called the Veskeen Exiles, were born from the foul betrayal of their own kin. Transformed into shadows of their former selves by the curse of the sun and gifted with a mastery over dark powers by their beloved yet mad king, they desperately sought to resist the genocidal efforts of those who had betrayed them. Without hope, the exiles ultimately heeded the influence of their fallen king and were lost to the darkness in which they'd once taken refuge. Molten Rest Beyond the shattered lands of Outerworld, the boiling energies of the Wound intensify as one approaches the innermost of the Inner Core. Molten Rest, a planet of rock islands afloat on oceans of seething lava. The air is filled with clouds of noxious gas and smothering ash. Tsunamis of raging magma rise up to swamp what little solid ground exists. The population exists as feral refugees, each determined to hold on to what little territory they hold. A caste of pyromancers have emerged to dominate the world, being able to manipulate the fire in all its forms, and use it as a means to wage war. The most powerful of these pryromancers are able to summon storms of ash and brimstone and calling blazing rocks to crash. Category:Book